Here’s what happens to bunkers after heavy rains

I thought I would share the results of the “test” from Friday’s (August 25) heavy rainfall. Over the past two weeks, we have installed a material along the face of the rear greenside bunker on #12 and the Fairway bunker to the right on #18. Here is visual proof that it worked.

The image below is one of the bunkers in front of #12 green, with erosion of sand down into the bottom of the trap that is now full of water

The image below, featuring its new bunker material, was unfazed by the rain event.

The image below is the fairway bunker on #18 . While a couple areas along the face show small patches of erosion, the vast majority of the hazard remained intact. Normally, this would be in the worst condition on the golf course. Now it is one of the best.

The plan is to begin a program of installing Bunker Solutions material to the face of all the greenside bunkers, and likely all fairway bunkers as well, depending on the cost, priority, available labor, time of year, and Board approval. The beauty of this system is that it can be installed by our own crews, as opposed to specially trained installers for the other products. And the best part….it’s considerably less expensive than any of the previous options!

The attached photos were just taken this morning after 3 ½ inches of rain here at Spring Run. This was a very good test of the Bunker Solutions System that we have installed in 2 traps already. The photos show you what the bunker on hole 18 looks like compared to the green side bunker on 18 which is much less severe a slope as the right side fairway bunker with the new system installed. These are pictures Vince Corso took to show the effect of erosion on bunkers and soft paths following these rain events.

The images shows the amount of water in the cart path just before the hole 17 tee box. It is 6” deep and flowing.

The images below are of the fairway bunker on hole 18 which has the Bunker Solutions System installed in it. The images show the only washout in that bunker. You can see that the Bunker Solutions material is intact and retains sand. NO CONTAMINATION occurred!

The image below shows how far the water in the pond next to the 18th hole is out of its banks.

The images below show the damage to the bunker on hole 18 which is relatively flat as compared to the fairway bunker.

The images below show the right side fairway bunker on hole 10. That bunker along with the greenside bunker on hole 18 and I’m sure many others on the course are contaminated as well as washed down and will require a lot of manhours of work to rake the sand back up; but also will require a lot of new sand to cover up the contaminated sand.

Thank you to Vince Corso and some members of the Greens Committee who investigated several options for our bunkers. After several hours of computer work, time on the phone and road trips to personally see the different systems, they chose the correct one for Spring Run.